United States Army Air Force bomber B-17F Memphis Belle lands at Washington National Airport, Washington DC, during a War Bonds tour in the summer of 1943, in World War 2. Washington Monument and Jefferson Memorial seen in the background. B-17F No. 24485 lands at the airport and taxis to a parking position. People approach the Memphis Belle as it is parked. The pilot looks out from the window of cockpit. The Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson and General Henry H. Arnold and Barney Mc Giles greet the crew and pose in front of the aircraft.

The role and contribution of the U.S. Army Signal Corps in combat during World War 2. Submarine cables laid down by the Signal Corps. Soldiers operate field army communication equipment for communication within and between units. Soldiers talk over the radio in a military jeep. American soldiers employ communication equipment seated at a table in a camp. A U.S. Army Signal Officer goes through documents. An officer receives a message in Washington DC. The message is relayed from the State Department to the Signal Center in the Pentagon building. Exterior views of the Pentagon building circa 1943 or 1944. Inside, technicians work using various communication equipment. They receive messages punched on a tape as the tapes emerge from machines. Workers at the 'Traffic Control, Army Command and Administrative System'. A man inserts and removes cables from slots. The plans are then passed on in codes through a maze of antennas all over the world. An animated map depicts the sending of these messages by radio multi-channels, radio teletypes, and manual radios to the front lines. A vast network of Army communication system from Washington DC to the rest of the world.

A documentary titled 'Boomtown DC', a part of 'This is America' series, compares Washington DC to an industrial boomtown where the big business is government. 1930's and 1940's cars parked along a tree-lined street in a Washington DC neighborhood with homes visible. A cat jumps down from a wall behind a neighborhood home, with the U.S. Capitol seen in the background. Scene changes to U.S. Capitol building exterior close up. Close up views of souvenir stand trinkets in Washington DC, including banners, snow globes, and postcards of buildings and monuments of the city. View on the National Mall in Washington DC toward the Lincoln Memorial, interrupted by temporary wartime elevated walkways erected between buildings of the rapidly expanding Navy Department on either side of the National Mall. Smoke stacks from the chimneys of a factory superimposed over various images of buildings in the city. A woman exiting a voting booth, followed by a man entering the same voting booth and closing the curtain. A US Army guard standing outside the White House. Exterior of the newly built Pentagon War Department building in Arlington Virginia. Sign "War Department" on the War Department building at 21st and Virginia Avenues. Exterior view of a Navy Department building, then exterior view of the Treasury Department building. Close up view of hands holding and flipping through a stack of IRS individual tax return documents, then of hands sorting through a stack of U.S. government bonds. View of the Justice Department, and then view of sign on the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Scientists in a laboratory operate various equipment and run tests. A scientist near some beakers and test tubes in the lab. Scientists look through microscopes. View of underground rifle range in the FBI building as personnel practice marksmanship. View toward shooters on the range during firing, and toward targets. US Army guard in front of the State Department building. Exterior view of the Department of Labor building and sign. View of the U.S. Office of War Information building (OWI) with sign "US Information" inscribed in large letters on the top of the building (possibly the "Temporary V Building" of the OWI?) Exterior view of the Supreme Court Building. View of Declaration of Independence document on display. Exerior view of U.S. Capitol, then view of House of Representatives in session. U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt seated at a desk signs a document. Citizens and workers walking on streets of Washington DC. Sopme people enter the Department of Agriculture building. Men and women enter the Office of War Information. Civilian and military hats being hung on a hat rack. Hand reaches for a 1940's era telephone. Women filing papers, views of filing cabinets. Close-up of 1940s era typewriters in use.

Volcanic eruption and creation of island of Japan. Glimpse of map of Japan. Gardens and rivers. Two men demonstrate samurai sword techniques. Japanese soldiers advance through smoke carrying rising sun flag. Chinese suffering under Japanese military occupation. Two executed with rifles. Japanese soldiers waving weapons and red ball flags. A DC-3 aircraft flying over a Japanese Pagoda. Vies of Old Japan. Farmers at work. One manually turning a water pump with his feet. A man using a pole to propel a boat. Modern methods adopted in Japan for terraced farming. Japanese building railroads. Japanese modern locomotive on South Manchurian Railway. in 1934. A Japanese twin engine bomber taking off. The Japanese ocean liner, Asama Maru, in the 1930s. Glimpse of numerous ships in Tokyo harbor. Western style architecture in modern Tokyo buildings. Neon lights on the Grand Palace Hotel and other establishments in Tokyo. Industrial smoke stacks. Women at work in a silk factory. Finished product stamped "Made in Japan."Steel ingots being made in a Japanese steel mill using scrap iron imported from the U.S.A. Chinese victims of 2nd Sino-Japanese War. Japanese troops on parade. Fallen American Marines on shore of Tarawa Atoll in the Pacific in World War 2. Japanese high ranking officers reviewing troops on parade. Japanese warships underway. Troops parading beneath the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. American B-25 bombers on flight deck of the USS Hornet, headed to bomb Tokyo.A crew of Doolittle's Raiders standing by their plane. B-25 taking off from the Hornet. Formation of B-25s in flight. View from bomber of smoke rising from bombing of Tokyo below. Brigadier General Jimmie Doolittle pledging to repeat bombing of Tokyo. Supply train entering a Boeing Company defense plant. Workers being scrutinized as they enter the facility and punching in at a time clock. Poster in the plant picturing a B-29 bomber on a message in German describing it as an instrument for a "Destruction Battle against the Luftwaffe." Bold letters, above, in English read: "They're Promised-Let's Deliver 'em!" And, below, the words: "B-29, Super Bombers." Slabs of aluminum sheets fill a factory room. Overhead traveling cranes move them. Workers use heat and brakes to shape the aluminum sheets. Multiple views of the aluminum being machined and stamped to specifications. Wings being fabricated. Relatively unskilled labor using jigs to perform the work. Woman operating an overhead crane moving a wing in the plant. Views of plane parts moving across the ceiling via cranes. Women driving rivets into wings. Men and women employees working inside fuel fuel compartments of wings. A floor full of engine nacelles. A floor full of 2200 HP radial engines. A skeleton nose section being fabricated. Midsections and bomb bays being assembled. Workers crawling through the airframe during assembly. A woman working on a connecting tunnel. Sub-assemblies made by contractors arriving at the plant. More views of Boeing employees including young, old, men, and women, at work in the plant.

Preparations that are made for prosecution of war criminals after the end of World War 2 in Europe. Women war victims standing on a farm. People weeping. Scenes of the main gate and barracks at the German concentration camp of Buchenwald. Scenes from Allied military interrogation of Doctor Adolf Wahlmann, head physician at the Hadamar Euthanasia Centre. Allied soldier opens door of a gas chamber at Dachau with label "Brausebad" (Shower Bath) over the door. A view of the gas chamber interior. A book titled: 'Moscow Conference of Foreign Ministers 1943' on a table. Hands opening the book. Officers seated at a desk sign the Moscow Agreement. Soviet politician and diplomat Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov and British Foreign Secretary Robert Anthony Eden seated at a desk. They sign the Moscow Agreement document in 1943. Doctor Hans Frank, Nazi minister of Justice, seen at a podium addressing an audience of Nazi officers. Interior of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, United States. Officers inside a building. The U.S. flag on a wall as narrator describes justice system for World War 2 war criminals with goal that it will be objective and there will be no martyrs of a flawed judicial proceeding. German citizens being led to view a concentration camp. Dead bodies and bones piled up in the camp.

Funeral procession of President Franklin D. Roosevelt on the streets of Washington DC. Horse drawn carriage with casket escorted by men on motorcycles. Crowd lined up on sidewalks. Various U.S. military units march. Funeral procession arrives at White House. Casket is carried into building. Casket is placed in East Room, lying in state. Scene change to funeral services for FDR at Hyde Park, New York. President Truman and Franklin D Roosevelt's wife among the mourners. A volley is fired over the president's grave. Symphonic music track in background is interspersed with audio quotations from Roosevelt, including, from his State of the Union on January 7, 1943: "Therefore, let us all have confidence, let us redouble our efforts. A tremendous, costly, long-enduring task in peace as well as in war is still ahead of us. But, as we face that continuing task, we may know that the state of this Nation is good--the heart of this Nation is sound--the spirit of this Nation is strong--the faith of this Nation is eternal." Also heard at the beginning of the clip is Roosevelt saying, "American fighting men looked to the statesmen of the world to finish the work of peace for which they fought and suffered. We failed them then. We cannot fail them again, and expect the world again to survive," from his address to Congress on Yalta, March 1, 1945.